Introducing the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies\u2019 \u2018Ancient Plagues\u2019 series, Lecturer in Roman History Dr Christopher Burden-Strevens presents us with a valuable reminder of how healthcare and social policy advances have transformed our responses to plague outbreaks. He said:<\/p>\n
\u2018Roman responses to disease were\u00a0similar to our own\u00a0in a few ways, but were of course primitive. The\u00a0Romans understood\u00a0the relationship between disease and heat: the\u00a0Senate shut every summer\u00a0and its members, wealthy senators,\u00a0took themselves to the country\u00a0(especially gentle seaside regions like Campania, literally \u2018the countryside\u2019). This tendency lives on in cities with\u00a0easy access to coasts, such as Paris and Zagreb, from which\u00a0thousands commute to the seaside\u00a0for summer\u2014 now for the purpose of leisure rather than disease prevention. That change alone is a\u00a0mark of human development.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Romans also generally understood the\u00a0relationship between health and cleanliness. They believed, at least, that their\u00a0famous sewers and aqueducts\u00a0were almost as old as the city itself.\u00a0 Baths, too, were practically a public service:\u00a0widespread and extremely cheap.<\/p>\n
\u2018Despite these measures, outbreaks of plague were annual.\u00a0Malaria was endemic: seasonal flooding of the Tiber would periodically inundate the lower-lying regions of Rome, and the\u00a0stagnant water was a paradise for malarial mosquitoes. The thermal water of public baths was emptied rarely and only by hand, creating a\u00a0breeding-ground for bacteria.<\/p>\n
\u2018Infant mortality was appallingly high: you could expect to live to your 60s or 70s if you made it to 18, but accounting for all those who did not,\u00a0the mean average life expectancy was closer to 30.<\/p>\n
\u2018This fact led to attitudes that would horrify us today. Osteological evidence suggests boys were prioritised for breastfeeding over girls; it was also common for un-affordable infants to be abandoned. Disease was inescapable and routine: tens of thousands died of malaria and cholera in the city of Rome every year. This was considered typical, so much so that our ancient sources, like the historian Cassius Dio, only noted outbreaks if they were of extraordinarily greater magnitude.<\/p>\n
\u2018One such outbreak was the decade-long Antonine Plague, beginning approximately in 165 AD. The more radical estimates suggest that it obliterated Rome\u2019s population, killing over half the Empire\u2019s inhabitants. If anywhere near accurate, that is tens of millions of people. Working from home, self-isolation, and lock-down were not feasible options. Herbalists and physicians such as Galen and Celsus were active within Rome in the first and second centuries AD. They left evidence of ancient treatments ranging from the innocuous, such as herbal remedies, to the invasive: primitive surgery and even burning away infected areas through a process known as cautery. Only a tiny minority could hope for professional medical treatment: for the majority, home remedies, amulets, and prayer were their only options.<\/p>\n
\u2018It is a\u00a0grim and sobering picture,<\/strong>\u00a0yet this explains (as our \u2018Ancie<\/a>nt Plagues<\/a>\u2019 video series shows) why ancient Greeks and Romans placed such an emphasis on\u00a0coping<\/em> with suffering. Lucretius wrote on the consolation of friendship. The people of Greek states such as Athens and Figaleia dedicated temples in thanksgiving for their survival. The earliest Christians held up models of strength in suffering such as Saint Sebastian. These examples encourage us to hope and to resilience today too. Rome and its people lived on. If the ancient Romans did it, so can the modern world.\u2019<\/p>\n The Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies\u2019 \u2018<\/em>Ancient Plagues\u2019 series can be viewed\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introducing the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies\u2019 \u2018Ancient Plagues\u2019 series, Lecturer in Roman History Dr Christopher Burden-Strevens presents us with a valuable reminder of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52167,"featured_media":12644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18564,124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12718,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713\/revisions\/12718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/secl-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}